1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for operating a processing installation, in which product units with different product characteristics are processed, comprising at least one processing installation, as well as conveying means for conveying the product units in the processing installation, further comprising a control device for the control of the at least one processing device, and adjustment means for the adaptation of at least one influencing variable for influencing of the product units at the at least one processing device, to the different product characteristics.
The invention moreover relates to a processing installation for processing product units with different product characteristics, comprising at least one processing device, as well as conveying means for conveying the product units in the processing installation, further comprising a control device for the control of the at least one processing device, and adjustment means for the adaptation of at least one influencing variable for influencing the product units at the at least one processing device, to the different product units.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to operate a processing device, in which products of a different format are collated at a collation device into a product collection which then as a product unit is conveyed through the processing installation and is fed to further processing steps. The product collections after their creation are fed in a cycled conveying operation to a packaging device where they are wrapped into a packaging film and are subsequently welded in and singularized. The packaged product collections are subsequently conveyed further to a delivery device. The product collections in the delivery device are put together into stacks and are bound into a stacking unit for the further transport.
The products, from which such collections are formed, each have different formats depending on the batch to be processed, so that the product collections of a batch can also each have different maximal formats. A product collection e.g. comprises one or more printed products, in the field of printed media. Whereas one product collection is addressed to a particular receiver, e.g. to an end customer or to a retailer, a batch of product collections of the same format corresponds to a geographic zone, within which a group of receivers of the same product collections is localised. In each case, product collections of the same contents are compiled for the receivers of individual regions, i.e. zones, since printed productions are targeted regionally with regard to the contents contained therein. These contents and thus also the format of the product collections can be different for other zones, so that a format changeover (resetting) can be necessary with a so-called zone change. One can even envisage the product collections being personalized and each product collection having its own format depending on the collection compiled for the individual addressees.
Different component arrangements in the processing devices, such as lateral aligning elements, the feeder device for the packaging material web or the seam creation and separation unit of the packaging device however must be set in each case to the format of the product collections. If then, subsequently to a batch of product collections of a first format, one changes over to a batch of product collections of a second format, then corresponding, format-dependent component arrangements in the processing devices must be reset manually prior to this. This according to today's state of the art, means that the processing installation must be shut down after completion of the preceding batch, and stopped for the manual format changeover for reasons of safety. The format settings at the related component arrangements of the shut-down processing installation are carried out manually by way of suitably technically trained personnel. After completion of the format changeover, the processing installation is run up again and the processing of the subsequent batch of product collections of the new format is resumed.
With the high processing speeds, which are common today, the stoppage of the processing installation means a significant reduction of the processing performance. A large time window, in which the installation is unproductive, is opened due to the shutting-down, taking out of operation and running-up, of the installation. If moreover, the format resetting or changeover at the related component arrangements is not immediately and swiftly carried out by the personnel, or if too few technically qualified personnel are available for the changeover, then the changeover process takes up even more time. Moreover, one must consider the fact that for safety reasons, the installation can only be run up when the last changeover has been carried out. This is also the case if the changeover has already been affected upstream and product units of the subsequent batch could already be processed, at least in the upstream processing region of the installation.